This isn't as bad as it could have been, but...rainbow cupcakes. Or I should say, failcakes.

I'm actually quite a good baker - my mother's a chef and took baking classes, so I've learned a lot from her - but sometimes that gets me into trouble. For some reason I got it into my head to make rainbow cupcakes. From scratch. Using my LIQUID food coloring. With about seven different layers of color in each cupcake. Now, perhaps this still could have been salvaged if someone with any sense was doing it, but sense and I are on opposite ends of the dictionary sometimes!

- I didn't have nearly enough batter - or bowls - to make the requisite layers. I was able to layer maybe three cupcakes before I ran out and had to do single-colored ones.- The liquid coloring made my batter far too runny. Which I didn't honestly realize till I'd baked them...- The recipe I was using turned out to be very tetchy. Couldn't have known.- I couldn't get the layers to spread properly! It ended up more like concentric rings of color than layers. Bleah.

So I wrestle the failcakes into the oven, creatively cursing all the way, and bake them. And bake them. And bake them some more. And they didn't cook AT ALL. I left them in there for three times as long as they were meant to be in and I pulled them out still completely liquid. Apparently that liquid coloring completely negated any properties of setting up that the batter had!

The failcakes went straight into the trash and I swore never to make another dadgum rainbow cupcake again. At least, not until I get gel colors.

Logged

"So, what did you wish for?""I wished for... World domination, of course."

This evening's mashed potatoes were more like glue than potatoes. I think I'll give up on mashed potatoes I never get them right.

Awww! Don't give up! Home made mashed potatoes are soooo much better than boxed-mixes.

How do you make yours?

What type of potato do you use?

I really like the Gold Yukon potato for mashed. The standard white baking potato also works well.

Do not use red potatoes for mashed . . . I don't know why. How about "Because I said so?" Even though the red potatoes are boiling potatoes, I've never used them for mashed.

Curious as to what other posters will say.

Peel the potatoes and chunk them so all the pieces are about the same size. It really doesn't matter what size (I use about 1-inch squares, smaller pieces will cook quicker) same-sized chunks will ensure that all the pieces are done during the same amount of time.

After peeling and chunking . . . RINSE! rinse, rinse, rinse! I put my chunked potatoes into the cooking pot, fill it with cold water, swoosh the potatoes around with my hand then drain in a colander. Repeat 2-3-4 times, until the water in the pot seems clear. This method rinses off a lot of the starch from the potatoes.

Boil the potatoes starting in cold water for about 40 minutes (depending on your chunk size) until the chunks are just fork-tender. Over cooking can also be part of the problem.

Drain the potatoes in the colander, return to the pot and on low heat add butter (cut up intoto 1 tsp slices -- maybe 1/2 stick?) and milk (a little at a time) while mashing, until it's to the consistency that you like.

Peel the potatoes and chunk them so all the pieces are about the same size. It really doesn't matter what size (I use about 1-inch squares, smaller pieces will cook quicker) same-sized chunks will ensure that all the pieces are done during the same amount of time.

I concur with the above quote. Boil the water until it is rolling, so medium and large bubbles rising from the bottom all the way to the surface. Make sure you salt the water! Boil potatoes for 20 minutes then use a slotted spoon to remove a few pieces and pierce them with a fork, when all the test pieces are tender and come apart, then drain the potatoes.While the potatoes are in a colander, melt butter in the pot they were in, and only when the butter is melted add back the potatoes. Use a potato masher to break apart most lumps, then add milk until it is your preferred consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!

I use heavy cream in my homemade mashed potatoes - it makes them, well, creamy. I almost always make them with baby red potatoes, almost never with any other kind. I also cheat a lot on the cooking and usually my potatoes spend some time in the microwave, because I am not very patient. I also don't peel them, just chop them up pretty small - I like the peel in the mash.

My now-ex boyfriend once pepper-gassed a whole house of guests. It was a game night, and everyone brings their own dinner, not a hosted party. My ex made his dinner on the stove top, and although I've since forgotten what he made, I have not forgotten that he chose to put red pepper flakes on it - and the little plastic thing with the holes that makes the bottle a shaker came off with the actual lid, and the red pepper flakes ended up on the still red-hot stove top. We had to open all the doors and windows and set up fans to make the house habitable.

Peel the potatoes and chunk them so all the pieces are about the same size. It really doesn't matter what size (I use about 1-inch squares, smaller pieces will cook quicker) same-sized chunks will ensure that all the pieces are done during the same amount of time.

I concur with the above quote. Boil the water until it is rolling, so medium and large bubbles rising from the bottom all the way to the surface. Make sure you salt the water! Boil potatoes for 20 minutes then use a slotted spoon to remove a few pieces and pierce them with a fork, when all the test pieces are tender and come apart, then drain the potatoes.While the potatoes are in a colander, melt butter in the pot they were in, and only when the butter is melted add back the potatoes. Use a potato masher to break apart most lumps, then add milk until it is your preferred consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!

I can't make mashed potatoes either. People have watched me and no one can figure out what goes wrong, but I end up with spackle. My dad said he would never eat mashed potato flakes, but yet every Christmas at my house, he does and never realizes it. It is our families little secret!

I have had numerous kitchen disasters from simply not using my brain. When you add water to a pan of rice a roni you are sauteing in butter, do not, I stress, do not just pour the 2 1/4 cups of water in while the pan is still on the burner on high. I was impressed with how high the flames shot ! My friend just looked at me and asked if I had failed home ec. I was in my 20's !

We lost a plastic Elmo plate in another moment of brain freeze. I set it on the back burner while I opened the oven to get the chicken out. Unfortunately, the pan on the front burner was sitting there doing nothing because I had turned on the back one instead. I had my back to the stove while serving salad and couldn't figure out what the smell that was suddenly enveloping the room was..and I turned to see Elmo melted to the burner and flames licking the sides. I did remember the home ec baking soda trick. The stench stayed at least a week no matter how much I scrubbed. This is why I now have a gas stove!

When I was living in my first off-campus apartment, I discovered two things:1) I really enjoyed baking cookies and2) My roommates were not to be trusted with an oven. At all. The number of times I came home just in time to rescue plastic plates and takeout containers that were being heated for "just a few minutes"...

So one night I was making my favorite oatmeal raisin cookies, just for fun, but I decided that the dough needed to chill longer (I start with melted butter, makes for chewier cookies) and that I would just wake up at 6am and bake before going to campus.

Well, what I didn't realize was when my roommate had sworn she had cleaned the oven (from a previous plastic incident), what she meant was that she had not, in fact, cleaned the oven. But I, merrily oblivious to this fact, turned on the oven to preheat and started shaping the first batch. So when the fire alarms went off, I thought to myself, "Huh. How annoying. I better turn those off." (In my defense, they did tend to go off every time anyone cooked anything).

Cut to me opening the oven, cookie sheet in hand, only to reveal a happy little flame at the back of my oven. And I can only blame my gut reaction on the fact that it was 6am: "if I put that out, can I still bake my cookies?"

I ended up filling a frying pan with water, dousing the oven, and then calling Maitenance to inquire about the box full of flame in my kitchen. And needless to say, from that point on, I made sure to clean the oven myself.

This evening's mashed potatoes were more like glue than potatoes. I think I'll give up on mashed potatoes I never get them right.

Awww! Don't give up! Home made mashed potatoes are soooo much better than boxed-mixes.

How do you make yours?

What type of potato do you use?

I really like the Gold Yukon potato for mashed. The standard white baking potato also works well.

Do not use red potatoes for mashed . . . I don't know why. How about "Because I said so?" Even though the red potatoes are boiling potatoes, I've never used them for mashed.

Curious as to what other posters will say.

Peel the potatoes and chunk them so all the pieces are about the same size. It really doesn't matter what size (I use about 1-inch squares, smaller pieces will cook quicker) same-sized chunks will ensure that all the pieces are done during the same amount of time.

After peeling and chunking . . . RINSE! rinse, rinse, rinse! I put my chunked potatoes into the cooking pot, fill it with cold water, swoosh the potatoes around with my hand then drain in a colander. Repeat 2-3-4 times, until the water in the pot seems clear. This method rinses off a lot of the starch from the potatoes.

Boil the potatoes starting in cold water for about 40 minutes (depending on your chunk size) until the chunks are just fork-tender. Over cooking can also be part of the problem.

Drain the potatoes in the colander, return to the pot and on low heat add butter (cut up intoto 1 tsp slices -- maybe 1/2 stick?) and milk (a little at a time) while mashing, until it's to the consistency that you like.

I actually prefer to use red potatoes as I don't find them nearly as gummy as some others, though Yukon golds work amazing well too. I leave the skin on them though and cook them nearly the same way. I don't put them back on the stove after rinsing. Once drained, I put them back in the pot or a bowl and add room temp butter and use evaporated milk (I usually use about 3/4 of the can, sometimes the whole one for 5lbs or so of potatoes) adding a bit at a time while mashing (sometimes I will also sprinkle a bit of garlic powder and onion powder just prior to adding the liquid). Also, I use a hand masher, not an electric mixer as I also find this makes mashed potatoes too gummy.

Logged

Meditate. Live purely. Quiet the mind. Do your work with mastery. Like the moon, come out from behind the clouds! Shine. ---Gautama Buddah

This evening's mashed potatoes were more like glue than potatoes. I think I'll give up on mashed potatoes I never get them right.

Awww! Don't give up! Home made mashed potatoes are soooo much better than boxed-mixes.

I'm in the UK so boxed mixes aren't really used over here (we used to have Smash but I don't think you can even still buy that). Thanks for the tips but it's going to be a while before I get over that particular disaster, I don't think DH will be asking for mash anytime soon either given the mess the kitchen ended up in.